ABSTRACT
Objective Based on a job analysis known as the Critical Incident Technique, this study is to develop a behavioral observation scale (BOS) for appraising the performance of charge nurses of class three hospital in Sichuan province. Methods First, 56 charge nurses and supervisors were interviewed by using the Critical Incident Technique and 498 incidents were reported.Then the 498 incidents were cate-gorized into15 criteria and 169 behavior items which formed one original BOS. 48 supervisors preexamined,on a five-point Likert scale as to the frequency, 190 charge nurses who were engaged in the behavior de-scribed by each incident. According to the item analysis above, 12 performance criteria and 54 behavioral items came out to form a formal behavioral observation scale for appraising performance of charge nurses Fi-nally,to test the reliability and validity of behavioral observation scale, 192 charge nurses were put under re-al test. Results The Cronbach's alpha coefficient ranged between 0.65 and 0.93. The retest reliability ranged from 0.50 to 0.76. Factor Analysis: 9 factors with eigenvalue greater than one were selected and ac-cumulative prepertion was 68%. Conclusions Behavioral observation scale developed on a job analysis known as the Critical Technique to appraise the performance of charge nurses has moderately high reliabili-ty and validity.